Cyprus is included in Advanced Economies. It was previously included in Middle
East and Europe under Developing Countries.

Asia is replaced by the title Developing Asia. There is no difference in the
composition of the group.

Middle East and Europe is replaced by the title Middle East, Malta, and
Turkey. Cyprus is no longer included in the group.

Two new subgroups comprise Countries in Transition. Commonwealth of Independent
States and
Mongolia replaces Trancaucasus and central Asia and the composition of Central
and
Eastern Europe has changed: the group no longer includes Moldova and Ukraine. Please
refer to the
introduction to the Statistical Appendix for details on WEO regional and analytical groups.

About the World Economic
Outlook
(WEO) Database

The WEO database is created during the biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) exercise,
which begins in January and June of each year and results in the WEO publication, which is
released in May and October. Selected series that are available in the publication are now
available on this website at the time of the release of the Advance Copy of the WEO Publication. If necessary, these figures will be revised in order to maintain consistency with the
published World Economic Outlook, which remains the document of record.

The WEO exercise is coordinated by the World Economic Studies Division in the Research
Department. The projections and analysis contained in the World Economic Outlook are
an integral element of the IMF's ongoing surveillance of economic development and policies in
its
member countries and of the global economic system. The survey of prospects and policies is
the
product of a comprehensive interdepartmental review of world economic developments, which
draws primarily on the information IMF staff gathers through its consultations with member
countries.

WEO projections are prepared by the country desk economists in area departments on the basis
of internationally consistent assumptions about world economic activity, exchange rates, and
conditions in
international financial and commodity markets. For approximately 50 of the largest economies,
referred to as Group A countries and which account for 90 percent of
world output, the projections are updated for each WEO exercise. Other countries provide
updates and revisions to their projections both during the WEO exercise and at the time of the
IMF's regular Article IV consultations with member countries
or in connection with the use of Fund resources, unless world developments necessitate more
frequent updates.

How the WEO estimates differ from those in International Financial
Statistics

The data appearing in the World Economic Outlook are provided to the Research
Department at the time of the WEO exercise, not on a continual basis. The historical data and
projections are based upon the information gathered by the IMF country desk economists in the
context of their missions and ongoing analysis of the evolving situation in member countries;
projections are staff estimates. The data published in the Statistics Department’s
International Financial Statistics and CD-ROM product are gathered as part of an ongoing
data collection effort in which member country statistical agencies provide public statistics to the
IMF. Because of the difference in data collection techniques, methodological issues, focus, and
timing, the estimates in International Financial Statistics and the World Economic
Outlook can differ.

Data and File Conventions

Please note the following:

Domestic economy series are expressed in billions of national currency units.

External accounts series are expressed in billions of U.S. dollars.

Indexes are generally based on 1995.

Dates are expressed as the four digit year followed by "A1" which designates the annual
frequency.

WEO group aggregate data are expressed in a manner that reflects the aggregation method
applied:

Domestic economy series are in index form; the focus of the series is its percentage
change.

In many cases no level data exist for group aggregates because growth rates are
aggregated.

Real Gross Domestic Product (annual percent change)

Annual percentages of real GDP are year-on-year changes.

Please note:

Data through 1991 apply to west Germany only.

For developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. Data for some
countries are for fiscal years.

For countries in transition, data for some countries refer to real net material product (NMP)
or are estimates based on NMP. For many countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff
estimates. The figures should be interpreted only as indicative of broad orders of magnitude
because reliable, comparable data are not generally available. In particular, the growth of output
of new private enterprises or of the informal economy is not fully reflected in the recent
figures.

In many cases no level data exist for group aggregates because growth rates are aggregates of
percent changes rather than levels.

Real Gross Domestic Product, Constant Prices (local currencies)

Real GDP is expressed in billions of national currency units; the base year
is country-specific. The last available year is consistent with that which appears in the
statistical tables in the WEO publication.

Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (local currencies)

GDP is expressed in billions of national currency units.
The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in constant prices in the
statistical tables in the WEO publication.

Gross Domestic Product in U.S. Dollars

GDP is expressed in billions of U.S. dollars. These
values are based upon GDP in national currency and the exchange rate
projections provided by the country desk economists for developing and transition countries.
Exchanges rates for advanced economies are set as one part of the WEO assumptions during the
WEO exercise. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in constant
prices in the statistical tables in the WEO publication.

GDP is expressed in constant national currencies per person. Data are derived by dividing
constant price GDP by the total population. The last available year is consistent with that which
appears for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO publication.

GDP is expressed in current national currencies per person. Data are derived by dividing current
price GDP by the total population. The last available year is consistent with that which appears
for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO publication.

GDP is expressed in current U.S. dollars per person. Data are derived by first converting GDP in
local currencies to U.S. dollars and then dividing GDP by the total population. The last available
year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO
publication.

Shares of Aggregate GDP Based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Valuation of Country
GDP

This data form the basis for the country weights used to generate the World Economic
Outlook country group composites for the domestic economy. The data are expressed as
percent of the world total.

Please note:

The IMF is not a primary source for purchasing power parity (PPP) data. WEO weights
have been created from primary sources and are used solely for purposes of generating country
group composites. For primary source information, please refer to one of the following sources:
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, or the Penn
World Tables.

Data for inflation are annual percentage change averages for the year, not end-of-period data.

Please note:

For many developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. Data for
some countries are for fiscal years.

For many countries in transition, inflation for the earlier years is measured on the basis of a
retail price index. Consumer price indices with a broader and more up-to-date coverage are
typically used for more recent years.

General Government Fiscal Balances

Data are on a national income accounts basis. Please refer to Box A1 for a summary of the
policy assumptions underlying the projections.

Please note:

Data include one-off receipts from the sale of mobile telephone licenses
equivalent to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2000 for Germany, 0.6 percent of GDP in 2001 for France,
1.2 percent
of GDP in 2000 for Italy, and 2.4 percent of GDP in 2000 for the United Kingdom.

France: data are adjusted for valuation changes of the foreign exchange stabilization fund.

Korea: data include social security transactions (that is, the operations of the public pension
plan).

New Zealand: data from 1992 onward are on an accrual basis and are not strictly comparable
with previous cash-based data.

United Kingdom: data exclude asset sales.

Output Gaps

Output gaps are calculated as actual GDP less potential GDP as a percent of potential GDP.
Estimates of output gaps are subject to a significant margin of uncertainty. For a discussion of
approaches to calculating potential output, see Paula R. De Masi, "IMF Estimates of
Potential Output: Theory and Practice," in Staff Studies for the World Economic
Outlook (Washington: IMF, December 1997), pp. 40-46.

Please note:

Data through 1991 apply to west Germany only.

General Government Structural Balances

Data are on a national income accounts basis. The structural budget position is defined as the
actual budget deficit (or surplus) less the effects of cyclical deviations of output from potential
output. Because of the margin of uncertainty that attaches to estimates of cyclical gaps and to tax
and expenditure elasticities with respect to national income, indicators of structural budget
positions should be interpreted as broad orders of magnitude. Moreover, it is important to note
that changes in structural budget balances are not necessarily attributable to policy changes but
may reflect the built-in momentum of existing expenditure programs. In the period beyond that
for which specific consolidation programs exist, it is assumed that the structural deficit remains
unchanged.

Germany: the estimate of the fiscal impulse for 1995 is affected by the assumption by the
federal government of the debt of the Treuhandanstalt and various other agencies, which were
formerly held outside the general government sector. At the public sector level, there would be
an estimated withdrawal of fiscal impulse amounting to just over 1 percent of GDP. Data exclude
mobile telephone license receipts.

The difference between the current account and the sum of net private capital flows, net
official flows, and change in reserves is the capital account and errors and omissions.

"Developing Asia" includes Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan Province of China.
Data for
Hong Kong SAR are not available.

"Crisis countries" includes Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and
Thailand.

"Middle East, Malta, and Turkey" includes Israel.

Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address WEO@IMF.ORG.

What Data Are
Available

This site provides the most frequently requested information from the WEO database consistent
with the data published in the World Economic Outlook. Please note the following:

The end dates of country-specific series correspond to those appearing in the WEO
publication.

Not all of the data appearing in the WEO publication are disseminated through this site.

Over time, additional information may be released.

Customized requests for WEO data will no longer be filled.

Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address WEO@IMF.ORG.

How To Use These
Files

The data tables, in the WEO Database Index, are presented in Comma Delimited, CSV text
file format. Although this file format allows for the data table to be easily retrieved into a variety
of applications, they are best viewed within one that will allow one to easily manipulate data that
is in columnar format. Common examples of such applications are those that are used to create
spreadsheets and databases.

If you don't have access to either a spreadsheet or a database application, you can also
retrieve the data table file into either an ASCII text-editing or a word-processing application.
However, since neither of these two application types has the facility to easily format the width
of
the data columns, quite a bit of manual reformatting will be required to properly view the
data.

Before you save the data table to disk, it is recommended that you view it first to make sure
that it contains the data you are interested in.

To View a Data Table

To view a data table, within your browser window, click on the CSV link that is located just
to the right of the table name.

Alternatively, you can right-click on the CSV link and then select "Open in New
Window." This viewing method is particularly useful if you want to open several tables for
viewing at the same time. Simply repeat the steps for each table you want to open for
viewing.

File Viewing Tip:
If you find that the table is wider than can be viewed within the width of your screen, use your
browser's Search key to locate key information that you are looking
for.

To Save a Data Table to Disk

To save a data table to disk, highlight the CSV link, right-click, and then select "Save
Target As." Make sure that you save the file as a CSV Text Document.

File Saving Tip:
If you want to save the data table to a diskette, check its file size beforehand to confirm that it is
small enough to fit on the diskette.

Open the data table for viewing.

Click on File/Properties. (Alternatively, you can right-click anywhere within the table and
select "Properties".) Included in the properties displayed will be the file's
size.

To Retrieve a Data Table in to a Spreadsheet Application or Import the Data Table into a
Database Application

To retrieve the data table into a spreadsheet application, proceed with the steps that you
normally go through to open an existing spreadsheet.

To import the data table into a database, create a new table and then import the data table file
into the newly created database table.

Note that because the data table is formatted as a CSV Text Document, you may be
prompted to set the file import options, which will ensure that the data is properly formatted
when
the file is retrieved into the spreadsheet or imported into the database table. The key file import
options and their associated values are listed in the table below.

Import Option

Value

Data Type

Comma Delimited

File Origin

Windows ANSI

Text Qualifier

{"}

Field Delimiter

{,}

First Row

Field Names

Additionally, please note that null field values are represented by the phrase
"n.a." You may need to replace all instances of "n.a." with a blank field
before importing the data table into your spreadsheet/database.

Tips:

Once you've retrieved/imported the data table, immediately save it to disk before
making
any formatting changes. This will avoid the need to reimport it should you run into problems
formatting the table. Remember to save the file in the native format of the spreadsheet/database
package rather than as a text file.

All fields, except those that contain numbers, should be specified as field type = text.

Numeric fields that contain "n.a." field values should have a numeric field type.
When
selecting which numeric field type to use, keep in mind that the field type you select will
determine the decimal precision of the field. Decimal precision will, in turn, determine the
amount of disk space that is allocated to the data stored in that field. In general, the greater the
degree of decimal precision required, the more disk space that is needed to store the field value.
If the overall size of the database is of a programmatic concern to you, choose your numeric
fields carefully.

To print the entire data table, you may need to maximize your page format settings as
follows:

Format Setting

Value

Page Size

Legal

Page Orientation

Landscape

Font Type

Any proportional font such as Line Printer,
Arial, or Universe. A fixed font such as Times Roman or Courier will increase the required line
length.

Font Size

8 point or smaller

Margins

Left = 0"
Right = 0"

Actual margin width will be set to the lowest default
value
for your printer.

To Retrieve a Data Table into an ASCII Text Editor or Word-Processing Application

To retrieve the data table into either an ASCII text editor or word-processing application,
proceed with the steps that you normally go through to open a text file or document.

If you are retrieving the data table into a word-processing application, you may be prompted
to
convert the file format. If yes, indicate that you are converting from "ASCII
Text."

Tips for Retrieving a Data Table into a
Word-Processing Application:

Once you've retrieved/imported the data table, immediately save it to disk before
making
any formatting changes. This will avoid the need to reimport it should you run into problems
formatting the table. Remember to save the file in the native format of the spreadsheet/database
package rather than as a text file.

Since the data columns are delimited with commas, you can search and replace all instances
of
commas with a Tab command. This will automatically align the columns for easier reading.

To view and/or print an entire data table, you may need to adjust the document's tab
settings so that the columns display correctly. Also, you may need to maximize your page format
settings as follows:

Format Setting

Value

Page Size

Legal

Page Orientation

Landscape

Font Type

Any proportional font such as Line Printer,
Arial, or Universe. A fixed font such as Times Roman or Courier will increase the required line
length.

Font Size

8 point or smaller

Margins

Left = 0"
Right = 0"

Actual margin width will be set to the lowest default
value
for your printer.